http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/chrisandsarah09/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from chrisandsarah09 en-us Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:00:48 +0000 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:00:48 +0000 For the first time since starting to blog our travelling experiences weve encountered a dilemma. Should we a Say that the Pulau Kapas was just alright nothing out of the ordinary and not somewhere that we would highly recommend or should we b Not say anything or c Tell the truth. The reason for opting for either of the first two scenarios would mean that we would not be contributing to the r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-446017.html We took the short bus journey from Melaka into the bright lights and skyscrapers of KL. We had prebooked our hostel based on a reccommendation from Dawn and Alli. The hostel was called 'Back Home' and was convientially located on the outskirts of Little India and in close proximity to all major attractions. The hostel was only a short walk from the bus station but we still managed to indulge in a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-440108.html Malaka our first stop in Malaysia only a short bus trip from Sinapore is a town with a lot of charm. We stayed in Chinatown an area quite cental that is oozing with character. We arrived on a Friday evening just in time to see Chinatown's weekend night market spring into life. The whole of Chinatown is overtakien by street vendors selling tasty treats and clothes some of which we recalled see http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Melaka/blog-439586.html After crossing the Chinese border into Hong Kong we entered a more western diluted version of China. I think the first realisation that we were no longer in China came when we were crossing the road people pressed the buttons at traffic lights waited patiently at them and then when the light turned red the cars they actually stopped and people crossed the road on cue from the 'green man'. The c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-428532.html Our flight arrived in late at night and as the airport shuttle took us towards our guest house in Chinatown we were admiring the city lights and the calmness of the place excited about exploring the next day. As with Hong Kong we only had a limited amount of time in Singapore.Our hostel was ideally located within Chinatown a hub of activity with food stalls souviner shops and traditional Chine http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-429175.html On the hard sleeper train to Xiamen we met an extremely friendly Chinese student called Jing Jing. Jing Jing was returning home from Hangzhou after visiting here brother. Even before the train had set off Jing Jing had greeted us and immediately offered us a vacum packed chicken's foot with an oreo biscuit to wash it down. Up until this point we were more than aware of the ready to eat delicacies http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-430731.html We were elated at the thought of leaving the scorching tempertaures of Suzhou but a little dissapointed that as a result of the heat we couldn't fully appreciate all that it had to offer. Hangzhou was a three hour train ride from Suzhou. The journey took us through the metropolis of Shanghai but we'd decided on this occasion to give Shanghai a miss. We were pretty tight for time and having been http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Zhejiang/Hangzhou/blog-428531.html After a full recovery from our three nights in Nanjing we made our way to Suzhou for a few nights. Suzhou is known as the 'Garden State' in China and our hostel was located in the historic part of Suzhou and was a maze of canals small teahouses eateries and walled gardens.Suzhou was a lot smaller than most of the big cities we had been to so far and it was really refreshening to sit back beside http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-422556.html Before we left Wuhan I Sarah had been feeling a little unwell but decided just to try and sleep it off on our overnight train to Nanjing. We successfully made it onto the train but as the hours passed and my trips to the trains shared steel 'squat' toilet became more frequent it became clear that I had travellers poo bum amazing luck. As if that wasn't bad enough having the a dose of the mo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-419375.html After leaving Chongqing furnace one of three and mking our way down the Yangzte we made boarded the bus and made our way to our second furnace Wuhan. We were only spending one night in Wuhan to wait on the train to Nanjing so we used it as a chance to rest up recouperate and get our clothes washed after the river cruise. The Irish couple and the montrealians were also staying just for the nig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-419374.html We left 'The Johns' air conditioned apartment into the near 40 degree heat of Chongqing along with the other Irish couple and a couple from Quebec. Accompanied by our Chinese guide we headed to the ferry terminal all a little exicted and nervous to see the 'cruise ship' that would be our home for the next while. On arrival at the terminal we were greeted surprisingly with sight of two familiar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-419373.html Having booked ourselves onto a three night Yangtze River trip not the luxurious cruise that you may have in mind in our last hostel we made our way to Chongqing a huge city that marks the beginning of our river adventure. We left Xi'an on an overnight hard sleeper from a busy warm and dirty train station. Having waited for the stampede of Chinese passengers to enter the train we leisurely str http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-419363.html The overnight train from Qingdao to Xi'an was our first experience of the hard sleeper and I must admit that it wasn't too bad at all. The hard sleeper a carriage with a series of bunks piled three high with little room in between makes for a pretty intimate experience with your fellow passengers. Fortunately the train was air conditioned the beds were comfortable and most importantly the gu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-415389.html We boarded our space ship like bullet train from Beijing to Qingdao complete with blood stains on front from an unsuspecting railway crossing mammal of some description. If we were to take the Lonely Planet literally which we did we would have expected a quaint little seaside retreat which has been described as 'China's Switerzland'.We had pictured Qingdao a former German settlement as a l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shandong/Qingdao/blog-415387.html After our seven nights on the TransSiberian we arrived in Beijing Central Train Station at 5am to the hustle and bustle of Beijing coming to life while our tired bodies were just grateful that we simply had to drag them across the road to get to our hostel.After catching up on some sleep and trying to make our bodies recognise the fact that we were no longer moving on a train we set out to explo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-411822.html Just a few more photos from our trip to the Great Wall.... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-412147.html Today is our last full day in China before we head off to the coast for a bit and what better way to end our last full day than with a trip to the Great Wall of China. In Beijing there are a vast array of tours to choose from that will take you to various parts of the wall but after a bit of deliberation we opted to be independent travellers and go it alone. We set our alarms for 6am and set off f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-412130.html It's Friday our last day in Moscow our first day of the TransSiberian express and Russian Independence Day. After relaxing in the hostel for a bit and pushing our noon check out time to the limit we headed out to enjoy a 'crapdog' for lunch and soak up Russia Day Moscow style before catching our train. Just as crapdogs were in hand Russian officers arrived in their masses their presence c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-410005.html Unlike the previous mornings on our new locomotive home we awoke after a pretty terrible nights sleep. There may have been a number of contributing factors. It was possible that the inevitable trainlag that we had been anticipating was upon us or perhaps it was our serious lack of physical exertion. It also could have been due to the air conditioning over which we had no control over pumping http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-410001.html Well we made it and we're in Moscow To be honest our 16 hour bus trip from Riga to Moscow really wasn't that bad. It certainly was as bad as we had anticipated despite Christopher's broken seat on the bus and the two guys sitting in front of us who clearly hadn't showered in a few days. However the process of crossing the Russian border although pretty smooth was a somewhat nerve wracking expe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-407587.html